Student Profile

Juliana Casale

What prompted you to sign up for Leadership Principles?

One of my pet peeves about working in tech is that you don't receive leadership coaching until you get to the executive or C-suite level. But what about all the directors and managers that have to muddle their way through becoming great team leads? They are directing the bulk of the company, but they've never had any formal training and have been forced to learn by trial and error. I wanted to fix that for myself.

What did you enjoy about learning with Harvard Business School Online?

I really enjoyed the case studies about how leaders have faced and overcome real-life challenges at work. I especially loved the video where a supervisor had to call a direct report into her office, and she approached the conversation three different ways. It was a great illustration of how there's always more than one way to tackle a problem.

How are you applying what you learned in Leadership Principles?

I'm now more mindful of how my colleagues are experiencing me, and less averse to having difficult conversations.

Any advice for others who take an HBS Online course?

Finish each module as far ahead of the weekly deadline as you can. That way, the course is less stressful, and you get the satisfaction of seeing your completion percentage go up.